Profile of the Day: Winston Churchill

On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. As prime minister of Britain, Churchill rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory. Although he was defeated in his re-election for prime minster in 1945, Churchill continued to play an influential role in world politics. With President Harry S. Truman in attendance, Churchill delivered one of the most famous speeches of the Cold War period.

He famously stated:

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere.”